Gromnir

"It may be difficult to believe, but per the Guinness Book of World Records, Klingon is the most widely spoken fictional language in the world. " other than elvish, or perhaps australian, we couldn't think o' a likely challenger to the klingon guinness title, so not a surprise at all. and don't tell us australians predominant speak english. have listened to a group o' australians speaking more than a few times and we need a freaking translator as often as not. HA! Good Fun!

kinda the point. look at moon and consider what the earth would look like without atmosphere, not to mention no oceans or plate tectonics. moon should makes more apparent that large and small bodies, hurtling at speeds ~40kmph or more, is also threatening earth. on a millions and billions o' year scale, we just don't see the evidence as we do on the moon. HA! Good Fun!

curiously, jupiter may be partial responsible for the extinction o' the dinosaurs. https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2021-03 snowball earth, super volcanoes, asteroids, comets and a dozen other extinction level events has come and gone. nevertheless, you may be right 'bout jupiter. then again, looking at the surface o' the moon, one wonders if the defensive catcher skills o' the gas giant is more in line with mike piazza than the molina brothers. HA! Good Fun!

gd ain't getting what am saying. in every state in the US, electricity and water is subject to regulation because they is identified as public utilities, even in texas. doesn't matter who is doing the selling, water and electricity is subject to public utility limits. observe that texas has not chosen to impose limits on particular sellers does not change the fact water and electricity provided to consumers is subject to legal regulation as a public utility. texas makes a distinction 'tween sellers o' electric service, but all such sellers is providing access o' a public utility. again, texas choice to not regulate ignores the basic and fundamental recognition that sale o' electricity and power is subject to laws encompassing public utilities, even in texas. compare to gd negotiating a K with those who want to use his land is not apples to apples for reasons we has already stated precise 'cause electricity service is a public utility... period. particular after texas problems, should be obvious why regulation o' public utilities is warranted. caveat emptor don't cut it when we mention public utilities. for the ordinary consumer to read the reams o' boilerplate in a consumer purchase agreement and come to conclusion that a texas apartment dweller is responsible for brobdingnagian short term leaps in price resulting from the failure o' the service provider to winterize facilities strains credulity, but such is gd's position. am gonna note gd hired a lawyer to review "every clause" o' his lease agreements. did you do the same with your electricity service agreement? HA! Good Fun! ps as an aside, real property law is also not strict speaking K law.

obviously there were sarcasm in our post. am not certain why anybody would be surprised that disney is trying to squeeze more outta their intellectual properties. the maleficent movies, which were similar to cruella as they were live-action reimagining o' an older animated feature, made considerable profit. prequels, sequels, live-action remakes, toys, computer games, theme parks, and tv shows based on movie releases, not to mention careful rerelease o' previous released titles, is only a few o' the ways in which disney maximizes the value o' their ip. tough to argue success. is folks who have criticized disney for their lack o' creativity in recent decades as their repackaging efforts become eye-roll inducing. that's it. no follow up. HA! Good Fun!

exactly. there is no such thing in tennessee, or ohio, or arizona or anywhere else in the us, save texas. electricity falls under the umbrella covered by puc/puct. electricity and water in texas is "regulated" by puc. the thing is, texas has chosen to functional not do regulation. electricity and water are public utilities from a legal pov and they is s'posed regulated. as an individual in texas, you may take comfort in knowing that electricity and water is indeed public utilities with the legal status such provides consumers, but if texas won't actual regulate, what then? the reasons for the regulation o' utilities is even more obvious than is need for bank regulation and the reasons for needing regulation o' public utilities is same in texas as tennessee. gd trying to negotiate a contractual relationship with a power or water company is laughable-- is a take it or leave it scenario and if gd is a memphis apartment dweller, what are his alternatives, eh? as we has seen, electricity and water is too damn important to allow economic actors focused on the quarterly report to be complete in charge o' safety and maintenance standards. the inevitable post mortems will reveal how more than a few o' the texas power providers were negligent, but so what? in many places the providers is literal the only game in town. the power companies cannot be allowed to fail. a few individuals might be punished, but the power providers will likely go forward, business as usual. and let's pretend for a moment that electricity and water is not public utilities in texas. does change in designation sudden give consumers more bargaining power? does change make more likely a consumer will be free from the possibility o' having to cover the losses o' a power provider when the provider acts negligent or reckless? 'course not. providers have individual service agreements (again, is a public utility, so should not think o' as an ordinary K) with consumers and wholesalers. the providers write into their agreements with consumers that those power users will be the people who bare the cost o' increases in power costs. change identifier should not change gd willingness to recognize the manifest unfairness o' the consumer/provider relationship. HA! Good Fun!

trying to reimagine a failure o' government regulation is what we would expect from gd, but after the recent faux pas with suggesting the victims o' the recent texas cold weather and resulting power failure 'coulda better prepared if they had 5-gallon propane stoves (*snort*) we woulda' expected at least a short period o' restraint from misguided championing o' free market forces. in this country, public utilities is not subject to same contract law gd suggests controls. is precise 'cause the consumer has few reasonable alternatives to the utility providers in their area that the government regulates such relationships. for example, arguable negligence on the part o' utility providers to winterize after receiving warnings from the fed after the cold weather o' 2011 would not be a viable excuse to raise power cost rates 100x in any state in the US, save for texas. just 'cause the utility provider put language into their boilerplate when a person seeks to get the electricity turned on in their new apartment does not mean customers should be subject to pay for the mismanagement of the power company... except in texas. is a public utility, so ordinary contract law does not control... save for fact texas has largely ignored their responsibilities. different rules for public utilities, for what we hope is increasingly obvious reasons. HA! Good Fun! ps statistic speaking, if a person intends on owning a home for five years or less, apr mortgages make perfect sense. is indeed a form o' legalized gambling, but such is hardly unique in our economy, and in that span o' time, the cost o' choosing wrong is likely small. if property becomes functional unsellable, and owner is complete upside down, then the risk were bad, but such is not necessarily a problem with apr. is perhaps surprising how many home owners sell in five years or less. keep in mind the average length o' home ownership is eight years, so...

am thinking people are undervaluing the possibilities o' doing disney prequels HA! Good Fun!

from a portion o' the gameplay video we linked, the developer mentioned how numerous mythic paths are not available from the start: lich, swarm that walks, legend, trickster and gold dragon... but she were kinda equivocating a bit. she did make clear that if you wanted to reject the demon/angel/dragon kinda stuff and choose legend, doing so would require a late(r) game rejection o' the immortality mythic paths. suggested other mythic paths were similar and one would need initial chose aeon, demon or other before eventual being able to go with gold dragon or swarm. will also note that while we assume owlcat's trickster ain't exact same as paizo's, "luck" were a mythic choice available at the end o' the first ap conclusion and we cannot guess what else luck would correspond with other than trickster given the options. HA! Good Fun!

episode woulda been very different with the sisko as commanding officer. HA! Good Fun!

y'know, the capacity to initial build footmen and archer forces by doing nothing but skipping days were our concern. earlier in the thread we observed how gathering resources necessary for acquiring troops were based on a timer, with no obvious and immediate punishment for expending time, but that doesn't feel right if is true. perhaps enemy forces get more numerous with time too? haven't had time to test. HA! Good Fun!

kingdom building were fundamental to the kingmaker ap. am suspecting a whole lotta work went into kingdom building. no doubt the owlcat developers were considering future adventure paths to recreate even as they were working on kingmaker, and am expecting they didn't wanna just trashbin the tools they had worked so hard to create. jade regents has caravans. skull and shackles has ship combat. hell's rebels has you building and commanding a rebellion. etc. wrath of the righteous has army management. not all o' the pathfinder adventure paths have such "mini-games," but a few do and am suspecting every ap on owlcats short list for game #2 included the minigame aspect. like it or not, army management is part o' wrath of the righteous. have no idea what the internal deliberations at owlcat is regarding the next ap. would be shocked if there hadn't already been discussion as to whether or not they once again attempt to make kingdom building tools anything more than wasted engine utility. reign of winter is perhaps the too obvious choice for game #3 if owlcat complete abandons the kingdom building aspect o' their engine. winter is not our favorite, but it includes baba yaga and rasputin, so... haven't played in near a week, so we wouldn't be surprised if shady has more experience with army management than does Gromnir at this point. our overall impression were that army management were less aggravating than were kingdom building, but mass combat didn't add much enjoyment to wotr... just an extra chore. since our previous post, we did observe how to hire a mercenary companion is prohibitive expensive unless you do so at the start o' the game. costs 2000 gold if you haven't leveled your party to 3 after leaving the labyrinth. a level 3 companion may be purchased while party is still level 2, but hit level 3 and you get charged 4500. gets steeper as you progress. so for purchased companions, go early or go w/o. HA! Good Fun!

after the winter o' 2011, texas was warned by the feds that their power grid were at serious risk if similar cold weather conditions were to occur. which brings us to 2021. gd food and water recommendations is swell and all for those who can manage, but is kinda irrelevant at this point. those who have died already did not expire from starvation brought on by the lack o' electricity or supermarket produce. rule o' threes tells us you got 'bout three weeks before you die o' starvation. am given to understand that today is the first day large numbers o' texans has been w/o potable water as water treatment plants finally started to fail. 3 days w/o water. am not thinking there is much relevance to 3 minutes w/o air. we were always told first rule o' survival were to make sure you had viable shelter as exposure were your most immediate threat to continued existence. gd is offering advice to those with means to prepare for a different disaster than the one confronting texans at the moment. worst part is the disaster were not only predictable but predicted. is another situation where the market fails to address a problem. government regulation habitual condemned by a few boardies is exact what woulda' prevented the unnecessary suffering o' texans today. HA! Good Fun!

you are being ridiculous and am thinking you have no grasp whatsoever regarding common sense. if people by the thousands were waiting in line to get food, then how likely is it they have a week of food stored for the possible crisis which may or may not happen in a year or ten? "sorry honey. i know you are hungry, but that canned food is for an emergency." be reasonable. without heat in sub-freezing temps, your family of four living in an apartment is not gonna be able to stay warm with your propane tank. the five gallon propane will heat the food you do not have, but it won't provide real heat. 50% o' the country is upside down--they owe more than they have. a large % o' the population is living paycheck to paycheck. the elderly and the disabled and the homeless? how many veterans living on the streets with mental health issues are being ignored during best of times? think they got a propane stove and a week o' food stored somewheres? those who have means should take measures to protect themselves from disasters. reality is that many thousands in texas will not have means. so yeah, whether you admit or not, is a bootstrap lecture and you deserve same recognition as the ex-mayor highlighted recent in this thread. HA! Good Fun!

"cavalier" is not the word we would use. am waiting to see if @KaineParker suggests you need a punch in the face before we say more... though we will share a news story, just to give gd something to think 'bout in the interim. Thousands of cars form lines to collect food in Texas HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

which should be the position o' those who wanna defend texas for not regulating. point out that the storm is unprecedented may not be complete accurate given the warnings texas was provided by mother nature and the feds in 2011, but is at least a reasonable response. the harsh reality o' cost v. benefit analysis might lead to the conclusion that preparing for a unprecedented storm is economic inefficient in the long run. opt instead for pathetic deflection and mendacious gaslighting? if wind turbines v winter were the problem, then north dakota should be facing yearly problems akin to what texas is facing today. north dakota gets a higher percentage o' its electricity from wind turbines than does texas and the historic cold weather in texas would be viewed as mild by a resident o' north dakota for this time o' year. yeah, when temps in north dakota drop below negative 20 F, which they do all too often, the wind turbines grind to a halt. the thing is, north dakota plans for such events and is not complete crippled by 'em. nevertheless, governor abbott in texas, representative boebert in colorado and the considerable weight o' conservative talking heads at fox is nevertheless tilting at the wind mills. proof trumpism is not gone. there is many in the gop who realize that once an issue is framed as an us v. them situation, there is no need to provide facts or reasonable arguments. get the trump base angry at democrats and the green new deal and then abbott will not need to defend lack of regulation o' energy producers in texas. perhaps worse, the pure mercenary motives o' fox has 'em whipping the trump base into a lather 'cause doing so increases viewership. fox and politicians know they is lying to viewers and constituents. lie 'bout the pandemic. lie 'bout the 2020 election. lie 'bout wind turbines? is some boardies who is gonna wanna try and claim that 2021 is no different than the past decades o' political and media mendacity. am calling bs. such claims is just another lie. the problem is we don't see a way out o' the mess we have created in this country where people don't care 'bout the truth near as much as they is concerned 'bout preventing the other side from being able to claim they were right... 'bout anything. HA! Good Fun!

fox news has been doubling down on the claims that the texas power outages is proof o' the non viability of the green new deal. it may be ludicrous, but recall that a large % of americans get their tv news almost exclusive from fox and from online sources even more mendacious. many in the trump base will be parroting tucker carlson in the days and weeks to come. iowa is also a red state hit hard by the recent cold, and the hawkeye state gets +40% o' its power from wind. during the winter months, texas gets 7% o' its electricity from wind, though yearly is just under 25%. iowa is suffering blackout issues, but almost all is attributable to natural gas issues. admitted, antarctica is much drier than texas, so the icing problem is not the same in antarctica as were the case in texas, but is many places around the globe where wind turbines has been successful winterized. nevertheless, fox is using this texas republican failure to properly regulate their energy producers as a way to make a point 'bout the evils o' renewable energy. after the election and the loss o' fox vieweres to oan and newsmax, the network's gameplan looks to be an effort to out fox previous fox polarization efforts. fox post mortem conclusions were that as an organization they were being too sympathetic to opposing viewpoints and the fox news people had too much power with their insistence on at least infrequent referencing facts. HA! Good Fun!

... perhaps mark zuckerberg just saw the cars that ate paris (1974)? lord knows we have yet to forgive peter weir and australia since the mid 70s. HA! Good Fun! ps ain't actual a facebook tantrum. australia wants facebook to pay every time an australian created news product is viewed or linked. so...

the talk o' home values reminds us how much we don't wanna continue being a landlord. overall, housing prices were flat in our county in 2020, but in our specific area there were marked increases. seems that living in a relative remote bit o' civilization far from the maddening crowd sudden had appeal during the pandemic. go figure. the couple local rental properties we own saw significant increases in value this last year, but as a landlord there is always something to worry 'bout. am tired o' the headaches. am more motivated to sell. if hurl doesn't mind a +1.5 hour commute, we can likely get him into a nice 1-story, 3br/2ba, 1800sqft which backs up to greenbelt in a gated community a bit east o' sacramento. available this may. other than the prohibitive commute, downside is you would be living literal a couple hundred meters away from Gromnir. am always shocked by just how many people in our neighborhood make the commute to the bay area for work. our morning jaunts to the office were only in the +40 minute range depending on traffic. soul sucking. however, the shift to telecommuting is making it much more viable to live somewhere not the bay area even if that is where is your job... though not for hurl we s'pose. 'course the sac valley/foothills summer heat and predictable wildfires is also becoming unbearable. can't get away from it. we know a bunch o' folks who moved from ca to tx the last couple years. tx were just so much cheaper. a couple such persons never quite recovered from the great recession and retirement were gonna be either texas or mexico. other acquaintances moved to tx specific for the tax situation. am recalling one ca ex-pat bragging to us 'bout how much cheaper were their utility costs w/o the rolling summer blackouts. am a smud customer, so we didn't have any blackouts. regardless, am thinking we give it a month or two before we remind our friend o' his utility boast. probable a too soon faux pas if we needle today. HA! Good Fun!

pps speaking o' pyrrhic victories, am gonna remind all the people who were cheering raffensperger for standing up to trump and similar congratulating trump appointed judges for dismissing trump campaign election cases, that yesterday's heroes is gonna be in the news all too soon and for same/different reasons. reaffensperger did more to suppress the georgia vote count than perhaps any single secretary o' state. literal hundreds o' thousands o' voters purged from the rolls close to the election in spite o' georgia being an automatic registration state. raffensperger were a bad guy if you are a voting rights advocate. he drew a line in the sand at the overt fraud trump appeared to be demanding o' him, but the georgia secretary o' state single-handed did more to help trump reelection efforts in the peach state than any other person you might care to name. the thing is, individual action such as raffensperger nonsense as well as state legislatures placing more limits on voter registration is gonna be the republican game plan going forward and they are gonna be aggressive 'bout their efforts. in battleground states with automatic registration, the republicans lost. period. so, is republicans in places such as michigan or pennsylvania where they got state legislature majorities and more than a few overt qanon members in leadership positions gonna advocate for ways to enhance voter registration or is they gonna increase their efforts to suppress? democrats historical do not vote. for decades republicans have depended on democrat indolence, but they ain't gonna assume democrats are gonna go back to their habitual apathy in 2022 and 2024. republicans now have the trump base and they know just how rabid those people are. if republicans want an edge in future elections, they know they gotta see a return to democrat indifference or they can take matters into their own hands and suppress votes in battleground states where they have a legislative majority. is not difficult to predict what happens, eh? we made this point more than once, but needs repeating. for decades, voting rights groups has attempted to get judicial relief when states impose new and harsher limits on the franchise. those voting rights groups almost always fail 'cause o' lack o' standing. if you were laughing or cheering every time the trump campaign had their equal protection claims summarily dismissed by the courts, you need consider just how (not) amusing is gonna be when same thing happens to a historical marginalized minority group complaining that a voting limit disproportionate affects them. the senate passed little in the way o' legislation the past couple years, but they did confirm fed judges at a historic rate. those judges were no more willing than raffesperger to commit fraud, but they were given district and appellate court appointments not to legitimize trump's attempt to steal an election but 'cause they were known to be sympathetic to some o' the more extreme conservative positions on gun control, abortion and voting rights. so, get ready for a particular ugly next couple years. HA! Good Fun!

wrath of the righteous, unlike many premade pnp adventures, contemplated companion npcs who would join your party, albeit at a somewhat diminished level. the pnp ap contemplated romances with the companions and bisexual were arguable the default option. yeah, more than a few o' the companions in owlcat's wotr are unique to the crpg, but we would be surprised if paizo didn't have input on the choice o' romance preferences o' companions. for those familiar with the wotr ap, the romance preferences o' companions being inclusive as 'posed to exclusive is predictable. from our pov, companion romances in crpgs is always terrible. always. as long as such is kept optional and tangential, am not concerned. am finding weird how invested is people with not just the romances but the gender preferences. *shrug* optional and tangential, so who cares? is not as if owlcat invested a whole lotta effort into the writing aspect o' kingmaker, so is not as if adding romance options is some kinda resource sink. whatever. have spent some effort doing the army management. heroes o' might and magic is an obvious inspiration. the interface is less intuitive than we would want-- took us a few long minutes o' frustration trying to figure out how to split units. am understanding there is less o' quest on a timer aspect to army management than were the case o' kingdom building in owlcat's previous effort, but am not certain how that is gonna work in wotr? you gain resources based on a timer, so... am too early into the army management stuff to offer some kinda definitive opinion. am a bit annoyed that our default tactic when fighting powerful melee units involves offering sacrificial single units to be destroyed while our archers decimate. have become extreme reliant on cleric and leader healing to restore unit strength before the end o' a battle, which feels like cheese. am having difficulty impacting morale to any degree. etc. will offer more meaningful feedback when we have more experience. we will note the combat and army management doesn't appear bugged to any significant degree. like it or hate it, army management is working as intended. as we play more, we notice more bugs, and a few is irksome. having to toggle rapid shot is a pain to get the correct number o' attacks as we default to a single attack for our zen archer/sanctified slayer unless we do so. we took an animal companion as part o' our priestly domain, but the animal companion archetype did not carry over from animal companion generation to actual gameplay. maybe not a bug, but am having nowhere to purchase cold iron arrows/bolts early in chap 2, so archery value is diminished. skalds is busted every which way with the inability to apply keening spells or choose bard specific feats as well as archetypes defaulting to vanilla skald post character generation. pc slayers is similar busted when attempting to choose feats. mythic stuff is borked as often as not. can't get a second spirit for our spirit shaman companion, 'cause that option don't work. impossible domain is indeed appropriate named as is impossible for a cleric to add a third. etc. nevertheless, the bugs is still fewer in number and severity than expected and the overall stability o' the game is excellent. loading times is satisfactory and nowhere near as bad as were kingmaker when it were released. is not a deep rpg experience so far, and our pre-knowledge o' the ap perhaps undercuts some o' the impact pivotal events, but am not thinking fans o' kingmaker were looking for depth so much as breadth. kingmaker offered a huge range o' character development and gameplay options and wotr expands the menu o' choices. wotr is exceeding expectations so far. as an aside, one o' the recent developer gameplay streams was a h00t. we didn't watch anywhere near seven hours, but we wanted to. HA! Good fun!

can't keep your eye on the ball, eh? the post you quoted included our observation that the trial were political and the law were a side show aspect. the conclusion were never in doubt. trump's acquittal were a pyrrhic victory. is unclear how devastating to the republicans were the loss. depending on how the covid and economic situation is the next couple years will be more significant than the trump trial, but again, the point o' the trial were never to change hearts and minds o' the mob. there were never any chance 17 republicans would do the right thing if the evidence warranted a conviction. decisions to acquit were made before the trial started. the acquittal were never in doubt. is why in an earlier post we observed how matt gaetz would actual be a superior choice for trump's defense 'cause were never 'bought lawyering. the point o' the trial were to make trump actions appear indefensible to some % o' voting republicans and then have republican senators need defend the indefensible. didn't need convince a large % o' republicans neither. were never gonna change the minds o' the base or other gibbering maniacs we all have come to know these past +4 years; you all know who you are. the aim were to change the pov o' a small percentage o' republicans and based on the recent election which trump lost, at least a few republicans with college educations were open to changing their minds. gonna remind you and others that enough republicans had recent chosen not-trump and that were before the chaos at the Capitol on january 6. the goal o' the trial for democrats were to cement for many republicans that they made the correct choice not voting for trump in 2020 and to make certain republicans in washington had to announce their approval or disavowal o' trump. the incompetence o' trump lawyers were clear to most, but it never needed be obvious to all. not apparent to skarp_one? big shock, eh? lindsey graham, in spite o' being spineless, were correct on one point. the trial and the excuses made for defending the indefensible has a serious chance o' haunting republicans in the years to come. the republican party is divided and the trial forced republicans to polarize further, which will make it more difficult to win in 2022. not impossible by any stretch. again, covid and the economy will be much bigger issues. ... however, am gonna admit call trump's acquittal "pyrrhic" is unfair... to pyrrhus. the greek general were a brilliant battlefield commander. hannibal included pyrrhus in his extreme short list o' the greatest military commanders in history: alexander, pyrrhus, himself. the field general efforts o' trump's lawyers do not make one think o' hannibal. maybe gideon pillow? gomer pyle perhaps? HA! Good Fun! ps we mentioned pillow with a certain self-aware irony 'cause as incompetent as he were on the battlefield, am understanding he had some success as an attorney after the civil war. perhaps pillow were a slip-and-fall lawyer? dunno.

have avoided saying anything 'bout the legal aspects o' the senate trial 'cause is a political trial and not legal. senate makes the rules. pundits complaining 'bout hearsay and even Constitutionality o' the trial is misguided as the senate trials is not a federal civil or criminal trial. nevertheless, when trump's lawyer, michael van der veen, claimed trump knew nothing o' the danger pence faced at the Capitol on january 6, we had an "oh fudge" moment. why would he do that? republican senators knew what happened and didn't care. apparently pence didn't care in any meaningful way that trump were tweeting criticisms o' pence while the attacks were in full swing. gonna now start discovery? is possible an agreement where certain facts previous uncontroversial is agreed to as stipulated and entered into the record. otherwise... HA! Good Fun! ps

our first major bug would be annoying if this weren't a beta. at the end of the first chapter, the player is required to makes choices which correspond with mythic paths and alignments. choose "good" is a dead-end... which could be owlcat commentary. at the very least, a couple of the "lawful" options were viable. am s'posing we will try a bit o' wotr army management in the coming days. as an aside, am not certain how xp is generated, but our 4-man party is having little more xp than our 6-man party does. am recalling in kingmaker we took fewer party members and level'd a bit quicker, but am noticing almost negligible xp variance depending on party size. HA! Good Fun!